


The Truth Behind This Path I Walk

by Dikhotomia



Series: Whumptober 2k19: FE3H Edition [18]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe, Day 18 Muffled Scream, Gen, Truth Between the Lines verse again, though it's in the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 13:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21100586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "She might have considered it concerning if she wasn't privy to it's cause. She might have gone to find help to look and see what was going on if she hadn't already seen the horror for herself. She might have moved in to save someone if she wasn't willingly turning a blind eye to it. She might have argued if she wasn't the one to say 'fine" with gritted teeth when it was brought up."Does it bother you, your majesty?""OREdelgard meets with Those Who Slither.





	The Truth Behind This Path I Walk

**Author's Note:**

> I HAVE an official verse name for this finally, while I still call it "Truth Between The Lines" in the tags to make it easier for people to find it when I get to work on it for real next month I'll be calling it "The Dichotomy of Mirrors."

The screams are muffled and distant, cutting off as abruptly as they had begun.

She might have considered it concerning if she wasn't privy to it's cause. She might have gone to find help to look and see what was going on if she hadn't already seen the horror for herself. She might have moved in to save someone if she wasn't willingly turning a blind eye to it. She might have argued if she wasn't the one to say 'fine" with gritted teeth when it was brought up.

"Does it bother you, your majesty?" 

_Your majesty_, like she's already sitting on the throne._ Your majesty_, like she wasn't just a convenient pawn in a game where neither side was truly in control. Her eyes flick up from her study of her tea, falling on the woman who sits across from her. She hates this place, but no where else is safe for them all to meet like this.

"Did you do this on purpose?" She fires back instead of answering, eyebrows raised and hands curled tight around the cup held between them. There's half a mind to watch her grip, lest the aged porcelain crack and spill hot tea all over the table and her gloves. It's petty, and accusatory but she didn't come here to listen to people scream while Cornelia took her sweet time to give her a report.

While she waited for Thales to decide to show up from whatever corner of the world he'd crawled into to poison this month. While she waited for Solon to finally fill her in on what he'd heard around the monastery in places she wasn't able to reach. 

"No," Cornelia replies, offense hardly more than a facade. "Now why would I do that?"

Edelgard scowls, her sigh harsh. "What do you want?" Because this was something they'd all done for one reason or another, tried to shake her with various experiments they had chosen that very day to attempt. Each time they lied and pretended it was just an accident, just a scheduling conflict. Just a 'oh we thought you were coming tomorrow' excuse and each time she heard it she wanted to turn heel and leave and never come back.

But she stood firm and endured instead, because she needed these people as much as she wanted to kill them for everything they had done and continue to do with her unwilling approval.

_She hates them._

"We need more....materials." 

_Materials_ she says with such calm it's like she was asking for another cup of tea or one of the pastries spread out between them. Like the materials weren't living, breathing _humans_ she could hear _screaming_ still. Her jaw ticks and she slides her hands away from her tea to fist them in her lap, squeezing until the leather creaks and her fingers hurt. "So get them."

_Is this a joke?_

Cornelia watches her, unflinching even under the chilling nature of the expression she knows she wears. It's a mask she dons with practice, not wanting the older woman to see just how disturbed she really is. Just how much the noise, however muffled, digs into her and makes her want to run away and hide the longer she has to sit and listen to it.

"No, we have plenty of those what we need is more crest stones." 

That, she understands now, is why she brought it up. Because Edelgard sits atop a wealth of them.

"I fear you will have to wait a bit longer for more of those," Hubert interjects and she straightens in her seat to hide the relief she feels at his presence settled by her side. "Lady Edelgard did specifically ask for your patience, it's not as though we have absolute freedom to move around without attracting suspicion." She glances up at him out of the corner of her eye, waiting for whatever it is he has to say to her. Did Solon show up finally, Thales? Could they _leave?_

Cornelia's smile is calm but Edelgard can see the frustration hidden underneath it. "Of course," she says, pushing up to her feet. "We have enough Demonic Beasts for now, but if you hope to challenge The Immaculate One-"

"I will find a way to gain access to more crest stones before then," Edelgard interrupts, holding a hand up. "I'm not so foolish as to believe I can take on such a beast with an army alone. No matter how large the army." It's a placation, because in reality she knew with the correct resources an army could fell a Dragon. Even if throwing the beasts at it would certainly lower the cost of life, if that failed, Edelgard wanted another plan.

She always wanted another plan.

Always _had_ another plan.

The screams have stopped and the silence that falls between them all is cloying. It brings no relief to the tightness in her chest, and she makes no move to rise from her own seat. "Is that all?" she asks instead, reaching for her tea again. "I apologize for interrupting your work." Only half serious, the words bit out with an air of polite sarcasm that makes a muscle in Cornelia's face twitch.

"Not at all your majesty, I needed the break. But if you'll excuse me I must get back to it."

Edelgard turns her attention to her cup, a silent dismissal. When she looks up Solon has replaced Cordelia in the space across from her, his small, hunched frame perched atop the chair. Spindly arms rested against the table. Thomas' face stares back at her, his gentle smile looking alien when she knew the face underneath the mask.

"I've heard some troubling rumors, my lady," he says without preamble. "Some of the knights have grown suspicious of your....absences. Especially where it concerns appearances of the Flame Emperor." 

"Coincidence," Hubert says, arms folded behind his back. "Lady Edelgard has an alibi for all of it. Whether it be an errand or helping someone else out."

"Some of the knights are paranoid," Edelgard adds, fingers splayed. "They have cast suspicion even on the Professor. I'm hardly surprised I've attracted their attention as well, that's just the problem with poking a hornet's nest as large as Garreg Mach." As large as an entire religion. She anticipated this kind of trouble, so had done as Hubert had said. Always had an excuse for why she was missing.

Today was no different, the satchel that sat by her feet filled with items one of the merchants had requested. It wasn't at all unusual for students to come and go from the monastery to the nearby town, though Edelgard had traveled further under the cover of a group of her own imperial soldiers disguised as villagers and merchants. All of whom stood guard at various points of the base, each ready and willing to jump to whatever order Edelgard might give.

"Though it is still a concern if they focus their attention entirely on me." If they started following her, or searching the town when she was supposedly there, it would be more difficult for her to come up with an explanation for that particular absence. But it also didn't mean she could just change her habits and stop going in to town and taking small errands like she did as cover. "Perhaps we ought to change how we handle these reports." 

'Tomas' had just recently taken a trip to another church for reasons Edelgard didn't bother to pay attention to. "You come and go a lot, Solon," she continues, balancing her chin atop the tips of her fingers. "No one will bat an eye if I spend more time in the library." 

The old mage smiles a smile that looks wrong on the face of the gentle man she once knew. "Of course not my lady. I'll be sure to keep you appraised of what's happening."

"You'd best," Hubert says, the disdain in his voice obvious to all parties. "If you want your plans to go off without a hitch. We can't afford any miscommunication."

Solon's smile stays in place, and his assurances make Edelgard's skin crawl.

"I'm afraid Thales isn't able to make it," Hubert says once they're alone, Edelgard's tea still largely untouched. "He got held up dealing with some 'unrest' as his letter put it."

"Unrest," she repeats, standing. "Very well." 

The screams resume as they leave her soldiers falling in to step with her as they walk, but they're anything but human.

\-----

There's knights watching her when they return to the monastery that evening, and she pretends not to notice them, continuing her low conversation with Hubert as they weave through the thinning crowd over to the merchant whose goods she had slung over her shoulder.

"Here's the items you requested," she says once she's within earshot of her, satchel drawn from her shoulder and held aloft. "I'm sorry it took me so long, there was a bit of a line with one of the traders."

"Thank you so much!" The merchant replies, taking the satchel from her. "I'm sorry for troubling you with this. I could have done it myself but I had a project I had to finish today and I needed these for tomorrow."

"It's no trouble at all, I'm happy to help."

She passes the gatekeeper with a pleasant greeting, aware of the knight that follows in her wake. She lets him, meandering along through the monestary grounds until she reaches the dining hall where she and Hubert join the rest of their class for dinner.

Just another day.

(_She hears the muffled screams again when she closes her eyes later that night._)


End file.
